[Samba] Samba server as a WebDAV proxy

[Andrew Bartlett]

Arnaud Bienvenu wrote:
> 
> Dear all,
> 
> As you may know, webdav support is quiet poor on Windows, compared to Samba.
> That is why I would like the samba server to act as a proxy to webdav
> servers. This would give windows users the ability to browse webdav
> pseudo-shares and map them to a drive letter, without buying software like
> "WebDrive".
> 
> I am setting up a quick and dirty "proof of concept" software, plugging samba
> (server) and davfs (webdav client) together, and it seems to work fine.
> 
> My questions are :
> 
> - Is anybody already working on such idea ?
> - What are your opinions about this possible feature of samba ?

You may implment any VFS you like...  Just stick by the rules - in
particular that means that any Samba VFS module must be licenced under
conditions no more restrictive than the GPL.  Watch out, there will be a
*lot* of subtle things you won't be able to support, and you are just
going to have to try and paper over the cracks...

The main think is going to be authenticaion - Samba does not typicly get
the user's plaintext password, and this is certainly not passed on to
VFS modules.  

> - Would anybody like to take the lead of such a project ?

I think that's your job :-)

Andrew Bartlett

-- 
Andrew Bartlett                                 abartlet at pcug.org.au
Manager, Authentication Subsystems, Samba Team  abartlet at samba.org
Student Network Administrator, Hawker College   abartlet at hawkerc.net
http://samba.org     http://build.samba.org     http://hawkerc.net